Man gets six years for drug, weapons offences

Justice Felix Cacchione said it spoke “volumes” that the young man who stood in front of him Tuesday had five years ago faced similar drug and weapons charges.

“You’re a young man, but you’re heading down a dangerous road,” the Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge told Earlandres Anthony Smith as he handed him a six-year sentence.

“The fact that you on two different occasions possessed a very powerful firearm is not a good indication of how long you’re going to live.”

Smith, a 25-year-old father of five from Simmonds Road in North Preston, stood in the Halifax courtroom, just moments after pleading guilty to drug trafficking and weapons charges.

“If you continue doing this, you know what the outcome is going to be,” Cacchione said. “You live by the gun, you’re going to die by the gun.

“And that’s not anything anyone would want to see.”

In July 2011, police stopped a vehicle they had under surveillance after a tip that Smith was carrying a revolver.

Smith was searched and officers found a loaded .357 Magnum in the waistband of his pants, marijuana, crack cocaine and $1,075 in cash in his pockets, as well as a BlackBerry and scales.

He had been banned by court order from having any kind of firearm since he was sentenced in 2007 for drug trafficking and carrying a loaded .357 Magnum.

In his submissions to the court, defence lawyer Ian Hutchison pointed out that his client had not used or threatened to use any weapons at the times of his arrests. Smith also had not threatened officers with any violence, Hutchison said.

But Crown attorney Melanie Perry told the judge in 2011 there were 75 cases of shootings in Halifax Regional Municipality.

And while Smith isn’t charged with shooting anyone, “when drug dealers are arming themselves to protect themselves, that’s where some of the shootings come from,” Perry said.

Both the Crown and defence lawyers recommended the 72-month sentence for Smith, which Cacchione accepted. With credit for time behind bars since his arrest, Smith has 53 months left to serve.

He was also ordered to give a DNA sample to police and was again given a lifetime weapons prohibition. Items that police seized during his arrest were also forfeited to the Crown.